A hard lesson is coming

It is one of the great mysteries of modern British politics: how public schools managed to survive three periods of Labour government with their tax breaks intact. How was it that an education secretary, Anthony Crosland, could say: ‘If it’s the last thing I do, I’m going to destroy every fucking grammar school in England, and Wales and Northern Ireland’, and yet do nothing to make life difficult for independent schools? Suzi Leather, Tony Blair’s appointment as head of the Charity Commission, demanded private schools do more to justify their charitable status. They upped their bursaries a bit and invited state schools to use their swimming pools every so often, but were otherwise allowed to carry on avoiding VAT and being let off much of their business rates bill.

Yet could it now be a Conservative government which finally sends the taxman round for a slice of St Cake’s? Michael Gove, of course, is no longer education secretary, nor even in the government. Yet he recently said that the government should stop regarding ‘the education of the children of plutocrats and oligarchs to be charitable activity’, a point which sent the independent sector flapping around for a response, which in turn reminded everyone how little they understand the problem they face.

When a group of organisations representing the independent sector, including the Independent Schools Council and the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference, got together and produced a round-robin letter to the Times in response to Gove’s article, the best argument they could come up with was that ‘educating the 500,000 independent school pupils in the state sector would cost £3 billion a year’.

Putting VAT on school places and charging full business rates would not close the independent school sector any more than alcohol duties have finished the drinks industry. It might, though, spur some struggling schools to convert into academies — thus saving the state the capital cost of building new schools.